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Family & Social Life

Donations to the Museum have preserved irreplaceable evidence about generations of ordinary Americans. Objects from the Copp household of Stonington, Connecticut, include many items used by a single family from 1740 to 1850. Other donations have brought treasured family artifacts from jewelry to prom gowns. These gifts and many others are all part of the Museum's family and social life collections.

Children's books and Sunday school lessons, tea sets and family portraits also mark the connections between members of a family and between families and the larger society. Prints, advertisements, and artifacts offer nostalgic or idealized images of family life and society in times past. And the collections include a few modern conveniences that have had profound effects on American families and social life, such as televisions, video games, and personal computers.

This steel lunch box was manufactured by Aladdin Industries in 1969 to take advantage of the excitement over the moon landing. The exterior features images from the Apollo 11 mission, including Neil Armstrong’s first step onto the lunar surface, and the command module’s splashdown. There is an illustrated National Safety Council "Safety First" message printed in black and white on the interior lid, and the bottom features an image of the plaque that was left on the lunar surface.

This domed, tin lunch box was made by Aladdin in 1968. It has two metal snaps on a hinged lid and a collapsible, yellow plastic handle. The box has a brilliant pop art design, taking the form of a sliced loaf of bread.

This steel lunch box was manufactured by Aladdin in 1970. It has a metal snap for hinged lid and collapsible white plastic handle. The lunch box was made for sale in Mexico, and touts the benefits of fresh milk (leche fresca). The box is blue and gray with cartoon images of cows and people.

This plastic and glass thermos bottle was made by Aladdin in 1970. It has a screw-on blue plastic cup lid with handle and white plastic stopper. The thermos is blue and white with cartoons of cows and people. The thermos touts the benefits of “leche fresca,” or fresh milk, saying that “it will make you like a bull.”

This top-opening square metal lunch box was made by Aladdin Industries in 1958. It has a metal snap for hinged lid and a hinged peach plastic handle. The lunch box has a peach and beige faux basket weave pattern lithographed on exterior, while the interior has white butterfly pattern on peach field.

This metal, glass and plastic thermos bottle was made by Aladdin Industries in 1958. It has a screw-on peach plastic cup with handle and red plastic stopper. The thermos has a peach and beige faux basket weave pattern.

This domed steel lunch box was manufactured by Aladdin Industries in 1969. This lunch box features a psychedelic pattern of swirling orange, red, pink and yellow. The wild design aesthetic is representative of the 1960’s ethos and evokes other sixties motifs like tie-dye and lava lamps.

This plastic and glass thermos bottle was made by Aladdin Industries in 1960. The bottle has a screw-on yellow cup lid with handle and screw-on yellow stopper. The thermos has a psychedelic, undulating yellow and black checkerboard design.

This domed steel lunch box is a conceptual design by Aladdin Industries in 1968 that was never manufactured. It has two metal snaps for a hinged dome lid and collapsible yellow plastic handle. The box has an undulating orange, yellow and blue checkerboard pattern that is made of vinyl and taped to bread loaf lunch box (see 2001.3101.16).

This plain worker's metal and glass thermos bottle was made by Aladdin in 1949. It has a screw-on dark brown plastic cup, a cork stopper, and is painted dark green. The label reads “HY-LO Hot or Cold, The ‘All American’ Vacuum Bottle.”